Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction What did you do at your pond today?

The day that I've been waiting for, the day that paid back every bit of the $$$, toil, and suffering that it took to resurrect my pond, finally arrived.

Between the COVID panic, military obligations, nuclear reactor training, and all of the other assorted craziness in the world today, it's been over
six months since I've been able to see any of my grandkids. Things worked out to where they were all able to come for a visit over the weekend.

This one is Lexi. Just turned 5yo, she belongs to my oldest son Justin and his wife Amanda. Lexi has been asking to go fishing since the first time
she saw the pond after it filled, so she got to go first.

9/12/20




Then it was 4yo Rhett's turn. He belongs to #3 son Taylor and his wife Rachel. This kid is a pistol. Pretty sure he's going to be the one that
turns out to be Grampa's fishing buddy.




This is 7yo Lennox. He belongs to Taylor and Rachel. Poor guy suffered a brain injury at birth and is severely challenged mentally. After seeing
the other two catch a few he looked at me and said "Fish, Grampa?" You could have knocked us all over with a feather at that moment in time.
It was obvious that he'd been paying attention. He grabbed the rod and the reel handle just like how I'd been showing the other two to do it, and
dipped the jig in next to the dock like a pro. Soon as he felt a tug he was cranking on the reel like he had Moby Dick on the end of his line.
Moments like this don't come along very often for this kid. I'm glad I was able to be a part of it.




Wife Jamie, daughter Leah, and Logan - the doberman that thinks she's a Lab rode herd on Lexi and baby Ruby while the boys were fishing.




There was way too much going on to get weights and measures on the fish we caught, but just from visual observation they are doing very well.
Every one of the RES and BG/HBG that were caught were in great shape. Most of them were in the 8"-9" range. I was especially impressed with
how thick the RES are across their backs. I don't have a lot of experience yet with the YP, but they looked to be in good shape too. We caught
half a dozen of those, all in the 7"-8" range, so I'd assume they were all fingerlings from the first stocking in September of '19.

But this day wasn't really about the fish, it was about the kids. The fish could have all been stunted 3-finger BG and it wouldn't have made a
nickel's difference in the amount of fun that was had and the memories that were made.

Yesterday Grandson and his friend(like another grandson) strung wire over the pond to deter cormorants. They have cleaned me out twice and it’s about time for them to show up again. I used Tposts with electric fence tape about 3 ft off the water and about 30 or so ft. apart.

Got advice from Esshup, Lusk and Chris Steelman. Appreciated!

Augie, it looks like a great family time!

Another Gator showed up at the pond. Looks to be about 3'er. In the last couple of years the gators started showing up at the pond. Not something I really want but will keep the otters and beavers away I would think.

A gator just showing up in ur pond just seems crazy to this kansan. Would add the wow factor around here.

No gators, but I did manage to break the shear pin in my Minn Kota electric motor. Since it is permanently attached to my pontoon boat, a bit awkward to get at. But the repair will happen.

Herbicide eliminated maybe 90 percent of visible bushy pondweed, and maybe 70 percent of american pondweed. Bushy pondweed still green & growing near bottom of deeper water, however. Wish the american pondweed were less affected. Cattails and duck potato unchanged. Pond viz declined dramatically but is gradually clearing. Smaller fish likely had a hard time when most of their cover disappeared.

Harvested 139 largemouth bass so far this year, want to take out another 60 to 90. Relative weight seems to be doing better now, larger fish very healthy. I haven't seen a hybrid striper in several months, though. Hopefully they survived the summer and will provide some great sport as things cool down.

I think gators eat fish too.........

If gators eat cormorants, I can stand them snapping up a few fish. Hate those birds!

Fished. Cleaned fish. Fed fish. Trapped RES fingerlings and transferred to other ponds that I figured could use them.

You reminded me that I put several CNBG in the forage pond. Hopefully they'll spawn & fill it up over the winter & early spring, when I'll drain it into the main BOW.

Stocked on March 14th @ 3” long...

Augie....those are some great (clear) pics....looks like a good time

what is this?


Caught on beef jerky.....we caugh bass on beef jerky too


Guess who's back?

Our pigs never left..... sitting out now trying to rid of more.... nice looking BG, crappie

Pat is the coloring on that bluegill a bit unusual?

me2 on hogs 2nite
I went out at sundown and walked to woods
and then realized I forgot my deep woods off
I stayed as long as i could getting eating alive my skeeters
wondering which bite would give me west nile....lol
finally gave up

Zep, that coloring on the male CNBG is unusual, and so is the clipped tail fin.

esshup, from what i have researched Gators do eat fish as a primary food for them. This one would lay his head on a limb of a sunken tree at the feeder. By his being there the cnbg would not feed as actively as they did without him being there. I am not seeing as many turtles, so i think he has been eating them also. They are another primary food for them. Since i have been having gators show up over the past 3 yrs with all of them being 4' or less i assumed they were year old gators but discover they only grow 8" per year so that makes them out to be 3 to 5 yrs old. That really surprised me. We use this pond for retriever training and for training young fisherman so can't have any gators. Keeping an eye out for gators is a new pastime at the pond.

Zep, no pics but the other day i caught a golden colored bg. It was a bright gold colored from head to tail.

The previous owner of my house lopped off the tops of four fairly large live oaks that were either overhanging the roof or severely damaged over the road. They were unsightly and not helping the remaining four oaks. A friend was in town and we went to work yesterday. Four new live oak log benches were added to the pond! Used 8ft old fence posts as levers to load them on my old light weight boat trailer.

Pretty neat. How are the ponds doing?

Hello- I am new to the forum and would appreciate any suggestions. My brother and I are having serious overgrowth of aquatic plants in a 20 year old 4 acre pond used for fishing. We want to get our water tested for nutrients, etc. Do you know of labs in Franklin County or St. Louis County that will analyze the water and provide testing procedures.

We are working with local extension office on identifying problem plants. once we know what we are working with, do you make product suggestions for chemical controls.

We just finished working on dam, deepening sides of pond to 2 feet, deepest part is 18 feet. We have grass carp ordered. We are going to work on some riparian buffer. We are going to try some mechanical removal, but that is arduous. We have used all of the above over the years- just a tough year.

We have bass, bluegill and catfish and a lot of fun.

Thank you!

DE14362, welcome to the forum. You will have better answers if you create your own thread instead of using this one. Head to the main forum list, scroll down to Aquatic Vegetation, and create a topic in "Controlling unwanted plants."

During the 7.5" rain I saw YOY GSF and and BH washing into the wetland/sediment pond. Main pond went from 6' low to overflowing in 12 hours. About 1ac to 2ac. Surprisingly it only overflowed for three days. Now that the BH are fairly under control I fear the gizzard shad will be a far greater adversary.

Took off last Wednesday for a long weekend of sprint car racing at Lucas Oil Speedway. After unpacking and washing the camper I went out to the pond to feed the fish.

You'd have thought the poor things were half starved to death by the way they attacked the pellets. They were not messing around.

I got a visual on some of the advanced size YP that I got from Snipe last fall. Now that the water has cooled into the upper 60°s they have become much more active
and are taking pellets from the surface rather than being content to hoover up what sinks. There are a couple or three that look to be pushing on 14". The big RES will
chase the smaller YP away from the pellets, but these larger YP won't put up with that behavior. They push right back.

My YP have never grown that large. I'm thinking I need to visit Snipe for some new stock.

Electro harvested 56 bass, pretty much completing goal for the year. They definitely looked better than they did in May, though maybe some of that is comparing with post-spawn fish back then.

Loads of CNBG, from small to big. Some large HSB and a few tilapia, as well. No threadfin shad seen, so I'll need to restock in spring. Golden shiners might be worthwhile, too.

Stocked 25 8 to 10 inch HSB to replenish original 70. Also stocked 250 F1 LMB in 3 to 4 inch range to add some genetic diversity. Most will be eaten, but even if only a fraction survive it will be nice.

My water is soft, so they had to up the voltage. I plan to add 21 tons of ag lime soon to amend this issue. Ethan said that I need to get a lot more cover in the pond, particularly hardwood trees & shrubs. As it is, bass have to cruise the shoreline to chase forage, which limits their ability to put on weight, even though forage is abundant.

Also plan on stocking rainbow trout in early December as they become available. Last year they added much to winter fishing fun, and I have a friend who absolutely loves to eat them. Ethan told me that rainbow are getting a more popular with pond owners, orders tripled just last year.